RUSTY COSTANZA / THE TIMES-PICAYUNEMalcolm Lincoln climbs out of a building believed to house ammunition at Fort St. Philip on Tuesday. A group of historians with the Plaquemines Historic Association visited the fort to check on its current condition.

Armed with a site plan to guide his search, Plaquemines Parish historian Rod Lincoln recently led his latest expedition through Fort St. Philip in search of a bomb-proof hidden amid the historic fortification's 60 acres along the Mississippi River's east bank.

Likely built during the mid-1800s, the bunker-like structure where soldiers sought refuge during bombardments has been overtaken by brush and debris like much of the outpost.

"It's a shame," Lincoln said to a small entourage of historians and history buffs. "We know it's here somewhere. We just have to find it. It's so overgrown here, it's hard to see where everything is."

Lincoln surrendered to the weeds. He'd seek the bomb-proof another day.

Staked by France, fortified by Spain, occupied by the United States and now home to snakes and cattle, Fort St. Philip was built near the mouth of the river to secure the immense waterway's entry into the nation's heartland. Men fought and died there in two wars, making Fort St. Philip a rarity among the nation's aged forts, local historians said.

Now, Plaquemines historians and government officials are hoping Fort St. Philip will be resurrected in a region devastated by Hurricane Katrina, this time to bolster the parish's economic future. They're hoping the U.S. Interior Department creates a national park in lower Plaquemines that includes Fort St. Philip and the parish-owned Fort Jackson south of Buras.

"Lower Plaquemines needs the economy," said Lincoln, who has spent years marketing the plan. "A national park could bring millions of dollars into the parish. We desperately need that money."

The concept is gaining steam. Last month, U.S. Rep. Charlie Melancon, D-Napoleonville, filed a bill in the House that calls on the Interior Department to study whether a national park is feasible. Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., whose staff wrote the bill last year, plans to file it in the Senate.

"This legislation will help pave the way for areas of Plaquemines Parish along the Lower Mississippi River to become part of the national park system," Landrieu said. "The area possesses incredible historical significance."

"These are obviously two sites that should be included" in the national park system, Melancon said of Forts St. Philip and Jackson.

The plan's backers say a park would appeal to history enthusiasts and ecology-minded tourists who would be willing to drive almost two hours or travel by tour boat from New Orleans to see Fort St. Philip, Fort Jackson and, from a towering overlook at Venice, to gaze upon the marshes at the mouth of the Mississippi River.

After all, they say, about 500,000 tourists each year visit the river's headwaters at Itasca State Park in Minnesota, which the Plaquemines historians call "a ditch."

"The mouth of the river is the gateway to America and to Louisiana," Plaquemines Parish President Billy Nungesser said. "How we don't have this as part of our tourism plan in the state just blows me away."

Sites on endangered list

The study, if approved, would last no more than 18 months. It would gauge the two forts' national significance and determine if they are appropriate as a national park, said Dave Luchsinger, superintendent of the Jean Lafitte Historical Park and Preserve.

It also could look at whether Fort St. Philip should be "preserved as a ruin," meaning its current state is retained through maintenance, but the fort isn't restored, he said. In any case, Congress makes the call, he said.

"Obviously, both sites are of extreme historical significance, and the park service has an interest in seeing them preserved," whether by the National Park Service or another entity, Luchsinger said.

"Funding is crucial to everything," said James Madere, president of Plaquemines Historic Association Inc. "The National Park Service has a history of obtaining sites, stabilizing them, renovating them and opening them to the public. The National Park Service is definitely the route we'd like to see it going."

Forts St. Philip and Jackson, along with the state-owned Fort Pike in eastern New Orleans, garnered national attention in 2006 and 2007, when the Civil War Preservation Trust named them among its top-10 most endangered Civil War sites. The group cited damage caused by Katrina, and its attention is said to open doors to grant sources. Historians in Plaquemines, however, said the parish never capitalized on the attention and opted for FEMA support only.

Fort Pike remained closed to the public until February 2008, but it was closed again in September when Hurricane Gustav's surge littered it with debris, said Stuart Johnson, assistant secretary of the Louisiana Office of State Parks.

"We're still finishing up the cleanup after the last storm," Johnson said last week. "We're about a month away before we're ready to reopen."

Fort Jackson, built in the 1820s, sat for weeks in salty surge water after Katrina and Rita. Nungesser said he hopes it will reopen this year.

Fort St. Philip Tour

Fort remains private

As for Fort St. Philip, no such government aid is available. It is privately owned and not open to the public. Its owners require visitors to sign legal agreements absolving them of liability.

Fort St. Philip's inclusion in the proposed park system study came as news to Frank Ashby Jr., a majority owner of the property and the surrounding 1,100 acres. He said last week he learned of the legislation from a reporter.

An oil broker and real estate lawyer, Ashby said he treasures Fort St. Philip. He inherited his share from his father, whose ashes were scattered at the site in the late 1960s. He has said that is a main reason he would never agree to donate it, but he isn't willing to spend what he thinks will be millions of dollars to restore it.

Donating also would be unfair to two of the fort's minority owners, Peter and Ivan Vela, who are not as financially well off as him and fellow majority owner Lelong Rivers, he said.

"I just can't donate something like that," Ashby said. "As far as a donation, it wouldn't be fair to them."

He acknowledged last week, however, that he has been approached by groups such as historical societies during the past 40 years, "saying they want to do something." None presented serious offers.

"They never call back," Ashby said.

Nungesser, who has met with Ashby, said he thinks that if the parish has a mechanism in place for the National Park Service to take it over, Ashby "will have to greatly consider that."

Ashby said of Nungesser's thoughts, "I'd be glad to talk to him about it."

British turned back

French colonist Bienville landed at the site where Fort St. Philip sits more than 300 years ago, according to history sources.

France built a fort at the site in 1749, and when Spain controlled the region, it built Fort St. Philip in the 1790s. France briefly regained the area, and sold it to the United States in 1803 as part of the Louisiana Purchase, setting the stage for soldiers there to partake in two of the nation's wars.

With their cannons aimed at Plaquemines Bend, U.S. troops turned back the British in 1815 while Andrew Jackson led the charge in the better-known Battle of New Orleans, in Chalmette. The war led the nation to bolster its coastal fortifications, and Fort Jackson was built across the river from Fort St. Philip.

While under Confederate control during the Civil War in 1862, soldiers quartered at Fort St. Philip fired their cannons and mortars but failed to stop a Union fleet that went on to take New Orleans.

The government further fortified St. Philip during the Spanish-American War era, erecting reinforced concrete batteries overlooking the river and a concrete fence around the perimeter. Soldiers trained there during World War I, Lincoln said, and the Army abandoned the site in 1922.

It's been privately owned since.

More to find, learn

In the 1960s, Plaquemines' segregationist boss Leander Perez ringed much of Fort St. Philip with barbed wire and promised to imprison civil rights marchers if they ventured into the parish. None did, and the prison was never used. Rusted strands of barbed wire are still visible at the fort.

Aside from about a 12-year period through the late 1980s, Fort St. Philip has been largely abandoned.

Gone, Ashby said, are the four officers' quarters that once sat at the fort's northern end. "One of them burned down, and hurricanes got the rest of them," he said.

The original Spanish fort, and its American additions, comprising red brick and mortar, remain intact, although between subsidence and a buildup of sediment and driftwood, the historians do not know how high its walls originally stood.

The tops of arched entries into the fort's interior, once tall enough to walk through, now barely extend up from the muck.

Still, Lincoln said, despite his numerous visits to Fort St. Philip, he still hasn't seen it all.

"The funny thing about this is, every time you come here, you find more, learn more," he said.

Paul Purpura can be reached at ppurpura@timespicayune.com or 504.826.3791.